History of the Times of Chaos

In order to explain the significance of the Times of Chaos, I must return to a time before the founding of this organization, to a place known as Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

Coatesville is a small steel city in the heart of conservative, agricultural southeastern Pennsylvania. Its population is diverse, mainly lower-middle-class, and free-thinking. As a threat to the "establishment," Coatesville has been given a bad reputation, stemming perhaps from the lynching of an African-American man by a Coatesville mob in the early twentieth century.

Today, Coatesville is known for its drugs, violence, and as the home of basketball star Rip Hamilton. These first two stereotypes are true to a point, but their extent is far less than many people imagine. It's not the safest place in the world, but neither is it as dangerous as people say.

I was educated in the Coatesville Area School District, which shares some of the reputation of its home city. Personally, I disagree with the sentiment that CASD is somehow inferior to the other nearby school districts, or that the education one can receive there is worth any less. I was happy-for the most part-with my school career, which has landed me at Cornell University. Other CASD alumni are currently attending the University of Pennsylvania, the Air Force Academy, and elite honors programs at such institutions as Penn State. Although Coatesvillians may not score as high on standardized tests as some other schools, I think these results speak for themselves. I wouldn't trade my Coatesville education for anything.

That having been said, however, I must explain that Coatesville, like school districts everywhere, has had its share of problems. One of the major themes for Phase One of the Times of Chaos was to expose these problems, and, hopefully, present reasonable solutions. With this one goal in mind, I set out in the summer of 1996 to create an "underground" newspaper for the students of Coatesville.

The obvious name I came up with was the Times of CAIHS, which is pronounced the same as the current title. CAIHS is an acronym for the Coatesville Area Intermediate High School, which was the building designed for ninth and tenth graders. The current name, Times of Chaos, began with the second issue.

Why the imagery of chaos? Life as I perceived was and is quite chaotic. We must struggle against the odds to create order, and even this order is destined to collapse after a time. Chaos is inevitable, and to survive we must realize this, understand it, and come to terms with it. I sought to facilitate this process.

I had opinions. Strong opinions. I knew that other students must have had strong opinions as well, and I thought it was time that our feelings were heard. The official school newspaper was regarded as somewhat acquiescent to the ideas promulgated by the "administration," and was somewhat reluctant to present radical or controversial opinions. One happy result of my enterprise (at least, I like to attribute it to the influence of the Times) is that this is no longer the case. Today, the Red Raider (new name) is more free and open than the Raider Review was when I first knew it.

Unlike the Raider Review, I didn't have a faculty member overseeing the publication of my paper. I also didn't have access to their printing press, or the right to sell my creation during school. It was an uphill struggle, but a worthy one. I wasn't afraid of the possible consequences of what I was doing, but I was cautious.

Once I had assembled my first issue, I gave a letter to our strict vice principal, William Brunson. When I confronted him in person to give him the letter, Mr. Brunson was not very receptive to my idea. He pointed out that, since we already have a school newspaper, the idea of the Times of CAIHS was redundant and unnecessary. I convinced him to at least read my letter (which he was not immediately willing to do-I had to keep pestering him until he finally had to give in). I would guess the letter got circular-filed soon after I left his office. I never, at any rate, got a response, which was fine since I stated in the letter that I would consider a lack of response as confirmation that my idea would be allowed. Feeling invincible, I distributed the first issue of the Times of CAIHS soon afterwards.

Response at first was not enthusiastic, in fact most people seemed downright apathetic. Soon, however, people began taking notice. Word began to spread. I started getting requests from people I didn't even know. Although I never got as many submissions as I had expected, the paper soon gained a popularity far beyond what I had ever anticipated. For the duration of the school year, this popularity remained, and the Times began to evolve.

During the Summer of '97, I began a new enterprise, my novel The Dagger of Despair. I have worked on this in earnest since that time, and the Times of Chaos was not printed in the 1997-98 school year. I returned to the project in Fall '98, and released Issue 1 of Volume 2, planning to print a whole series of issues that year as I had in tenth grade. The demands of my college search, three Advanced Placement classes, and novel got in the way, however, and the Times went on hiatus from that point onward.

In the fall of 1999, while attending Cornell University, I began to create an online home for the Times of Chaos. I plan three steps in the further development of the publication:

1. Phase One of the Times of Chaos, consisting of Volumes I and II, will be made available online.

2. I will begin accepting article submissions from the Internet community, and recommence writing for the Times myself. I will compile these articles into new issues of the newspaper-turned-ezine.

3. I will form organizations founded on the principles of the Times of Chaos, where members of the Internet community can discuss issues of general interest or specific issues.

Look for these things to be completed in the future. I have no idea how long this will take, but I will say that the demands of college life will prohibit me from spending as much time on this project as I would like.